


Secret Library

by kcstories



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: 100quills, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-12
Updated: 2007-09-12
Packaged: 2018-07-22 04:49:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7420546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kcstories/pseuds/kcstories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After yet another argument with Ron, Hermione bumps into an intriguing stranger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secret Library

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings:** AU-ish.  
>  **A/N:** The Potterverse is JKR's, not mine.

Hermione bites her lip, hard, as she hurriedly makes her way down another corridor. She _won't_ cry, certainly not for him.  
  
Why is it, she wonders, that all they seem to do lately is constantly quarrel?  
  
He's dating Lavender now, isn't he? So why on earth doesn't he just get on with his own life and leave her alone? He has what he wants now, doesn’t he?  
  
As if they haven’t enough on their plates to worry about—  
  
Classes and grades, and not to forget that not so insignificant matter of Voldemort—  
  
He’s rapidly rising in power, or so rumour and evidence would suggest.  
  
She turns another corner and unexpectedly bumps into something solid—  
  
_someone._  
  
"Sorry," she says automatically. She takes a step backwards and gazes up into the greenest eyes she has ever seen.  
  
"Where are you rushing off to?" the young man in front of her asks. He's a Slytherin, judging by his school uniform, but he’s no one she has ever seen around the castle before.  
  
"Nowhere in particular," she replies and realises just a little too late how foolish that must sound.  
  
"All right, let me rephrase that: what are you running from? Or is it more a case of _whom_?"  
  
She shrugs “I’m just having some trouble with… a friend.”  
  
“He must be the wrong sort of _friend_ if he – or she – has you in such a frazzled state,” comes the pointed remark.  
  
“He’s… we’re… _complicated_ ,” she says, while a bitter part of her doesn’t fully understand why she’s even considering making excuses for Ron… _again_.  
  
“My name is Tom, by the way,” he says.  
  
She blinks, but somehow doesn’t succeed in making the connection between the handsome Slytherin, the Head Boy badge and how surreal this situation is.  
  
She knows the real Head Boy, doesn’t she? He’s a Ravenclaw called Alfred, not—  
  
But she’s too pre-occupied with the way this young man is gazing at her, and how mesmerising his eyes are.  
  
“I’m Hermione Granger,” she says, feeling rather nervous all of a sudden.  
  
When she shakes the hand he offers her, a jolt goes through her, like electricity, a spark that signals the beginning of … _something_.  
  
She thinks she can hear an alarm going off in her head, but she decides to ignore it because she’s merely upset, that’s all. All those arguments are weighing her down, taking their toll, making her feel weaker and less rational than her usual self.  
  
Tom gestures towards a room to their left.  
  
Curious, Hermione walks inside. Her jaw almost drops at the sight that greets her.  
  
The walls are covered with rows and rows of shelves, one on top of the other, stacked full of books. They look intriguing, and are possibly forbidden – why else would they be stowed away here, almost as if in some Aladdin’s cave, deep in the dungeons, out of reach and out of sight?  
  
She looks at him and he gives her a dazzling smile.  
  
Harry and Ron won’t be wondering about her whereabouts, will they? Of course not, she decides. They’re too busy being silly teenage boys.  
  
She shyly returns the smile, accepts the old, thick book he offers her, and decides it can’t do any harm to stay awhile.


End file.
